


Just Once

by Seveneves



Category: Durarara!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Dance, Ballet Terminology, Cringe, Cussing, I Don't Even Know, I'm Bad At Titles, M/M, Oops, Out of Character, like majorly ooc, no cohesion between scenes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-18
Updated: 2017-07-18
Packaged: 2018-12-03 14:59:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,744
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11534622
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Seveneves/pseuds/Seveneves
Summary: AU where Shizuo and Izaya are both first-year dance majorsShizuo didn't really know about Izaya until he was told to stay away, but it wasn't long until they came into contact with each other.It's a ridiculous one-shot not to be taken seriously





	Just Once

**Author's Note:**

> I just really wanted more dance AUs. Also, Shizuo in tights. Shh, just imagine it if you haven't already.

"The body says what words cannot."

-Martha Graham

 

If he had to narrow down the reasons as to why he loved to perform, he would say they ultimately were the feeling of aching muscles, the sensation of liquified bones, the sound of blood rushing in his ears, the beat of his heart in time with his breathing, and the sight of the audience applauding in the dimly lit house, acknowledging his hard work and effort he put in to provide a substantial display in appreciation of the form of art called dance, but there was more. Those were simply the main reasons that overshadowed other less significant ones. While considering what he had just thought, he realized it was what quite foolish for him to think he could narrow it down; the flood of different positive aspects of dancing on stage couldn't be simplified down to those couple of experiences.

All in all, Heiwajima, Shizuo loved to dance.

It had been a way for him to constructively express himself in ways other than destruction and rage. During the earlier stages of his life, his brother had been the first to take classes between the two siblings at the advising of their mother, and Shizuo had been somewhat dragged along into it. Kasuka excelled at it initially whereas Shizuo felt uncomfortable with it at first. Ironically as they grew older, Kasuka dropped out of the activity, and Shizuo continued with dancing. Eventually, he found himself committed and invested to the sport, attending pre-professional classes as well as normal courses at the dance school he went to after school most days of the week. He took classes in tap, hip-hop, ballet, modern, jazz, you name it, he'd tried it. It was exhilarating, yet therapeutic.

There had been some times where he still lost his temper, of course (dancing had managed his anger impulsiveness not eliminated it), like when classmates made fun of him and his brother for being girly since they danced and/or when he wasn't able to execute a certain position or movement correctly after many tries.

Overall, things were better in the studio rather than the hospital.

As he prepared to fully dive into the dance world, he felt slight apprehension. A dancer's career wasn't the most stable occupation, and he didn't consider himself to be an extraordinary dancer either. He then wondered if perhaps he should pursue a different path such as criminal investigation because of the childhood dream he once had. Kasuka ultimately helped him come to a decision, and Shizuo ended up auditioning, putting all he had on the table.

To be honest, the experience had been very nerve wracking, and he didn't remember much of it. He was relatively surprised to find out he had made it in.

During the first month of college, Shizuo unexpectedly had made more friends than he thought he would, although he was still unexposed to some of the many other dance majors he had classes with. He decided to ask an upperclassman to introduce him to others before class started one day.

“So, who’s he?” Shizuo had noticed someone stretching on the bar in the corner of the room that the fellow dance major to the right of him failed to introduce him to.

“Ah, that’s Orihara, Izaya, a freshman like you. It's best if you avoid him in general.”

“Why do you say that?”

“They used to say he'd lure you in to make you think that you're of importance, but in reality, he’d just be using you. He's a manipulative and cunning bastard. We went to the same high school, and his personality's been like that ever since I've known about him from rumors.”

Shizuo watched as his upperclassman made exaggerated movements with their arms as they continued to talk. “Apparently, he made a reputation for himself by stabbing someone in junior high. I didn't expect him to even major in dance since people said the only thing he ever showed interest in was 'observing humans' or whatever. I've never talked to him directly before."

"What about his dancing?"

"Well, I personally don't know much about his dancing other than the fact that I've heard that he's really good at everything.”

"Huh." Shizuo had the impression that for a person that seemed to drag others down, they tended to be lacking in some way, shape, or form to make up for, but in Izaya's case, there didn't appear to be a reason for why he'd manipulate others unless it was for his own amusement. Stabbing someone...excessive much. The guy was a danger to society, and "observing humans," was it? Shizuo didn't like him already.

It didn't occur to Shizuo that he'd been staring at Izaya until the thin man in a black crop top and black tights turned around, and their eyes met. There seemed to be a twinkling in the brown eyes that Shizuo had found himself mesmerized by. The light captured his irises in a way that made them look like a pool of muddy blood surrounding the black hole that was his pupil. It was suitable for someone who'd driven a knife into someone else, Shizuo concluded. A smile then pulled its way onto Izaya's lips where Shizuo's attention eventually drifted to. Izaya subtly waved, and Shizuo was compelled to awkwardly wave back. He shook out of his reverie when a curse came from beside him.

"Oh shit. This can't be good. Look away, Heiwajima, I don't recommend you make further interaction with him. He seems interested in you, and I've heard that's a bad sign."

Nodding in agreement, Shizuo thanked the other dancer before he found his way to an empty space on one of the multitude of bars in the room. He didn't want to get involved with Izaya; there was a twist in his gut when he saw that smile, and he could tell something was wrong. He couldn't exactly put his finger on what made him feel sick to the stomach with just a look at the other's face but chose to avoid any confrontation, not wanting to feel it again anytime soon.

The instructor walked into the room at that time, and class proceeded with warm up.

 

* * *

 

"What'd you do?"

Shizuo took a bite of his sandwich as he shifted his gaze toward his roommate, a biomed major and friend from elementary school and high school.

"I got lunch...?"

"No, that's not what I meant." Shinra shook his head.

"What do you mean then?"

Plopping down back first into the grass, Shinra raised his hand toward the sky while moving his pointer finger in disorganized circular motions. "What made you catch Izaya's attention?"

"How the hell am I supposed to know? I haven't even talked to the guy. Wait," Shizuo finished the last bite of his sandwich, "how do you know that?"

"He asked me to introduce you to him since we're friends, I guess. We were in the same club in junior high together."

"Wow, small world."

"Yeah."

A silence fell over their conversation as the tree leaves rustled in the summer breeze.

Shizuo cleared his throat as he let his curiosity run his mouth for him. "Just getting a second opinion here, but is he really as dangerous as they say he is?"

Shinra sat up and removed his glasses to wipe the lenses with his shirt. "Not dangerous per se...Strange, I didn't expect you to be interested in him too."

"I'm not interested!" He bit back. "Just curious."

"Hmm. Whatever you say."

"Is the stabbing rumor true?" Maintaining the scrunch of his eyebrows, Shizuo rest his chin on his hand.

"Yeah, I was the one who got stabbed."

His head jerked suddenly. "What the fuck?! You never told me that before!"

"It didn't concern you nor did you ever ask me about it until now. Oh! Were you perhaps worried about me?" Shinra grinned, teasingly. "It's alright, I had my darling Celty to make me feel all better."

Shizuo huffed ready to tune out his friend's drawl about a certain infatuation of his, but the conversation didn't veer off like he thought it would, like it usually would've.

"Izaya wasn't the one to stab me though. He just shouldered the blame for it; actually, he asked me to tell everyone it was him. He may be wicked sometimes, but not all the time. I'd say he's fickle rather than dangerous. You should consider meeting him. With your moral compass, you could be a beneficial addition to his life."

Wide-eyed, Shizuo stared as Shinra stood up, surprised at the lack of a mention of Celty. "Are you okay?"

"Just dandy. Now if you excuse me, I need to get to my next class or else I'll be scolded."

Still sitting on the grassy expanse under the shade of a tree after Shinra was out of sight and out of mind, Shizuo thought over his day. It wasn't even halfway over, yet he was already so tired. Shizuo really didn't want to get drained anymore with anything related to Izaya.

However, despite his efforts to not make contact throughout the day, the meeting eventually happened. Shizuo had been going over the choreography alone in an open studio sometime past 10 o'clock when he felt eyes watching his movements. As he stopped his practice, he turned around to see Izaya sitting atop the piano in the corner of the room while clapping.

"Pianos aren't for sitting," he growled.

"Now, now. Calm down there. I'd like to introduce myself. I'm-"

"Orihara, Izaya." Shizuo cut him off. "I know."

"Eh? Shizu-chan did his research, huh. Impressive."

"My name isn't Shizu-chan, and I didn't do any researching. You aren't very well-received among the others, you know. I was told to stay away from you."

"And here I was thinking we could have some fun together."

Shizuo started to walk to his bag in order to grab his things then leave. "Not interested. You piss me off."

Before he could even blink, Izaya had swiftly intercepted his line of sight and blocked his path.

A temptation to rip a bar out of the wall to use as a projectile passed through Shizuo, but he decided against giving into the urge, not wanting to decimate the studio, and settled to talk it out as a result. "What do you want?"

"Although you may not have done any information gathering, I have. I want your strength."

"As if I can just hand it over." Shizuo felt the uncomfortable sensation in his stomach again. What would Izaya do if he had enormous strength like Shizuo? He didn't want to know.

"No, that's not what I mean. Based off of your physique and dexterity, I believe you'd be ideal in partnering."

The corners of Izaya's lips curled upward revealing a smirk. "I want you to be my partner."

"What? No."

Shizuo pushed past the other to close the distance between him and his freedom, but unfortunately Izaya refused to grant him that right by grabbing his hand.

"Just once!" he proposed. "Just partner with me one time tonight. If you're so against this even afterwards, I won't bother you again."

While pressing his lips together, Shizuo contemplated whether to state his concern or not. He sighed as he chose to be honest. "You know about my strength. What if I accidentally hurt you?"

Partnering was something Shizuo had done before, but after a mishap with one of the ballerinas from his dance school back during high school, he went with his better judgement that it would be safer for everyone else if he didn't partner. It was a relief that his partner recovered from the injury without any negative repercussions, but the fear he'd hurt someone still lingered which revealed itself during the audition and classes, when he'd become unnecessarily stiff whenever he'd had to partner with anyone.

A chuckle escaped from Izaya. "With that kind of mindset, I'm sure you won't accidentally hurt me anytime. In fact, I'm more worried you'll drop me on purpose or something."

It was light hearted banter, and Shizuo quite enjoyed it, laughter bubbling out of him at the statement. "Alright," Shizuo consented, "I'll be your partner. Let's get this over with; I'm tired." Shinra had said that Izaya wasn’t exactly dangerous. What could go wrong?

"Perfect!" Izaya pulled Shizuo to the center of the room. "We'll start with some simple steps to get used to each other, then we can get to the fun part, okay?"

Placing his hands on either side of Izaya's waist, Shizuo nodded in agreement before the other prepped for a pirouette.

He'd expected a simple retiré for him to get used to the feeling of partnering again, but Izaya pushed off onto his supporting leg for a triple pirouette at least. Startled, Shizuo contracted his hands and forcefully stopped the turning after five full rotations.

"I could have done more than that!" Izaya pouted, looking over his shoulder at Shizuo.

"S-sorry," Shizuo loosened his grip on the other's waist, "I wasn't expecting you to do that many."

In Shizuo's eyes, the short display of Izaya's impromptu decision (despite it being just a pirouette) demonstrated that he held a little trust in Shizuo even though they hadn't acquainted themselves much before. It boosted Shizuo's initial despairingly low confidence with partnering, and fueled some of his desire to try out more.

"Once more," Shizuo entreated.

As they continued progressing through the steps Izaya wanted to attempt, Shizuo became more active in his role as a partner: from simply keeping Izaya stable in a pirouette to aiding Izaya in a penché to walking around Izaya while keeping him stable in a promenade. They'd advanced to lifts rather quickly and soon had performed grand jetés, présages, shoulder sits, eventually achieving the helicopter.

  
At one point, Izaya faked being injured from Shizuo gripping his waist too hard. Shizuo had felt dejected until Izaya revealed it to be a lie. When Shizuo then threatened to stop the partnering session, Izaya promised to no longer try to provoke him. A broken bar that had been snapped in half now could be found next to the piano.

"How about we try the partnering combination from rehearsal?" Izaya asked.

All Shizuo did was nod while Izaya placed a CD in the stereo.

"Bénédiction de Dieu dans la solitude" by Franz Liszt began playing through the speakers.

Shizuo liked the piece of music chosen by the choreographer. It gave a sense of fluttering butterflies in his stomach when he listened to it, and before he had even thought about the steps that went along with the music, his body automatically flowed with the gentle caress of the piano keys and responded in reaction to Izaya's movements. The pas de deux had originally been choreographed for a different duo in their class, but it was obvious that both Izaya and Shizuo had been paying very close attention and had learned the duet.

The partnering contained no spectacular catches or lifts and instead had been filled with a plethora of tender holds. They danced together then let each other go to only come back together. Neither missed a single step the choreographer had woven in.

In the final moments of the combination as Izaya brought his back leg down from his arabesque, Shizuo took a hold of his hands, letting Izaya soutenu around to face him, their noses almost touching. Placing a sturdy hand under his partner's lower back, Shizuo then reclined Izaya into a dip, recreating the final pose in the choreography.

"I knew you'd be amazing." Izaya whispered. Smugly grinning, he closed his eyes in satisfaction with the result. His eyelashes sat atop flush cheeks that had been illuminated by the moonlight streaming in from the windows of the studio, and beads of sweat made his skin glisten. Izaya no longer had the annoyingly asshole-like air to him either.

In the heat of the moment of a successful partnership, Shizuo leaned in closer and interlocked their lips, pulling Izaya in closer the moment he was kissed back. After they came apart, the two stared into each other's eyes as their breathing intertwined. Shizuo swallowed a bit to alleviate the dryness in his throat.

"What the hell was that?" he croaked.

"I'm not sure, but I want to do it again."

Feeling his face flush, Shizuo let go of Izaya and let him drop to the floor.

"Ouch!"

 


End file.
